Madam, - I wish John Waters (Opinion, March 5th) had given some examples of the "aggressive secularism" that he complains about. I have never come across such a vice in our society. Over the centuries, aggressive religiosity has brought much death, injury and division to our country. No secular or humanist activity can be accused of such sins here.
Mr Waters should read (or re-read) Tom Paine's Common Sense, a pamphlet that advocated the complete separation of Church and State. Paine was a deist, a republican and an early socialist. His pamphlet greatly influenced George Washington and Thomas Jefferson and the wording of the secular first constitution of the US. No foreign alliances and no foreign wars were to be entered into. How far the born-again Christian, President Bush has strayed from those ideals.
Humanists and secularists are probably less involved in the rampant materialism of these times than are those who cannot use their own minds to seek happiness. Contentment is best realised not in the amount of one's possessions but in the paucity of one's needs. It can be found by any considerate and free-minded person, religious or atheist. The great golden rule, that predates any of the ruling religions of today, is "Do onto others as you would wish to be done to". Couple that with the teaching of Epicurus to the effect "that anyone can enjoy a life of prudent pleasure without fearing the wrath of the Gods", and one can happily dispense with worrying about the sins invented by dogmatic religions.
Ultimately, there is hope, optimism, meaning, and freedom in humanism. - Yours, etc,
JOSEPH HACKETT,
Greystones,
Co Wicklow.